


Captain's Log - Day 126

by cataclysm_of_the_masses



Category: The Masked Singer (US TV)
Genre: How Do I Tag, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:35:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24312136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cataclysm_of_the_masses/pseuds/cataclysm_of_the_masses
Summary: Or, Astro finally finishes his rocket.
Relationships: Astronaut (The Masked Singer US)/Turtle (The Masked Singer US)
Kudos: 14





	Captain's Log - Day 126

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to true degeneracy. XD
> 
> NOTE: In this house, we ship the masks and NOT the people under them. Respect the celebrities, guys!
> 
> (Btw, I'm coining the ship name as Astroturtle, fight me or forever hold your peace lmao)

Astronaut sighs, wiping his visor as he shakes his head. Just one more screw. He tosses the screwdriver in his hand, watching the light refract off its glassy handle, before spinning it hard.

There it was. He grins wearily, sliding out from under the rocket. Finally, it was done. He could... Move on.

Astro hadn't ever planned to come here, but the alternative was meeting an asteroid face-to-face. He'd taken the safer option and crash-landed onto this alien planet, which, in retrospect, was probably not the best idea. Why did he assume the inhabitants of this world were friendly?

Eh, it worked out in the end. He'd originally come across Alien as he'd ventured out from the ship, who he'd immediately taken a liking to - she understood him in a way nobody else did.

Not like that, you dirty-minded person! As they both came from space, Alien had practically adopted the shy, golden-clad Astronaut on sight. Even now, she was on his speed dial, so he just had to press 2 for her to explain whatever spacey idiom he'd uttered to Turtle -

Astro sighs to cut that train of thought short, standing up and placing his hands on his hips, looking at the rocket. He circles it twice, boots clanking heavily on the dirt, as he looks for any defects.

~~There's a part of him, deep down in his heart, that wants there to be something wrong. Part of that part wants there to be something so irreparably wrong that he can't leave.~~

But no, it was perfect. Astro still checks it again, just in case he'd missed something. He _had_ to have missed something...

Nothing, not besides the slightly different sheens of the old and the new metal. Astro resists the urge to throw the screwdriver into the side of the ship, denting it and forcing another repair, instead putting it into the shiny red toolbox Turtle had _shelled_ out for -

For Jupiter's sake, he was even punning like Turtle. He chuckles sadly, closing the toolbox and locking it.

Maybe he could take it with. Maybe that would be good.

Yeah, he'd do that.

Astronaut paces over, opening up the rocket and stepping inside. It was home for so long, but now the sheer emptiness of it ringed in his ears like a sudden drop in air pressure. He climbs several rungs on the side of the ship before opening a latched cabinet and putting the shiny red toolbox next to his own dull grey one.

~~When he squints his eyes just right, looking at the one toolbox so full of life and the other so drained and broken, he sees a fuzzy image of Turtle next to him, a walking ray of sunshine next to a heap of rust whose eyes were always lidded with some form of sorrow behind his one-way mirrored visor. At first, it was because _ground control_ was waiting. Then, it became because ground control was _waiting._ ~~

Astro exhales, closing the cabinet and sealing that bleeding ventricle of his heart away with the two toolboxes. He clambers back down, exiting the rocket, and walks away.

He figures, on the trek back to town, that he'd leave in the middle of the night. That way, nobody would have to cry. Well, not if he counted himself, but he'd have to go sooner or later, so he'd just be prolonging the inevitable by staying.

Astro's shoulders sag as the town comes into view. Like it or not, his stay was temporary. _He_ was temporary. His temporariness, which had been suspended in orbit for the past one hundred and twenty-five days, now crashes down on him, almost sucking the wind out of him, making it hard to breathe.

 _Don't think about it,_ he reminds himself, even as he knows he's going to do nothing _but_ think about it.

Astronaut walks the path he'd memorized already to where it ends in front of - _Turtle's_ door. _Home,_ he thinks for just a second, before shaking the thought out of his head. This was not Astro's home.

It would be okay. _They'll forget me after a little bit,_ Astro tells himself, because it's true - he knows he can be forgotten within a week. It doesn't remove the sting of that revelation, but it still calms him somehow, knowing that nobody will miss him.

So he knocks on Turtle's door, grateful for his helmet when the door swings open, nearly hitting him.

"I already chose the movie for movie night," Turtle informs Astro as the latter walks inside.

"Is it that Star Wars Part 2?" he queries, headed straight to the fishtank - Turtle had caved and bought him the goldfish he'd seemed to really enjoy watching at the pet store, and from then on, Astro took vigilant care of John.

_"What stupid kind of name is John?" Turtle had asked, looking at the fish as it swam around in the tank._

_"It's his name now," he had replied, nonchalant. Turtle never mentioned it again._

Astronaut shifts his weight from foot to foot until the clock hits exactly six PM. He shakes exactly thirteen pellets of fish food into his glove, then drops them, one by one, into the tank. John swims after each one, and Astro allows himself to smile.

"Astro, we are _not_ watching Star Wars," Turtle sighs, exasperated, as he jumps onto the couch - it's lacerated with stab wounds from his shell, but he doesn't seem to mind. "Last time we did, you ended up pausing the movie and giving me a thirty-minute dissertation on flight dynamics..."

"It was fun though!" he protests, crossing his arms.

"You still ruined it," Turtle sighs, crossing his legs.

~~_"You ruined it again," his flight instructor had seethed, watching the simulation crash spectacularly. "You're never going to go into space at this rate, and if you do, you won't come back."_ ~~

Astro feels his shoulders drop further at that (as if that were possible). "Sorry," he breathes out, perching on the other side of the couch, almost floating above it, like a particle of dust in an otherwise pristine cabin.

"I decided to put on _Titanic,"_ Turtle points out as the television flickers to life. "Still can't believe you've never seen it."

Astronaut shrugs, deciding to focus on the screen and not on the pounding in his chest, a gust of solar wind rattling him around the cabin. He dies down with the wind, falling asleep onto the couch's armrest within just a few minutes.

By the time Astro wakes up, it's half past midnight. He shifts, noting a blanket has been tossed over him, and quietly stands, folding the blanket. Looking over to Turtle, who snores rather loudly as the fourth or fifth repeat of a scene throws light onto his face, Astro can't help but giggle - how on Andromeda was that position possible?

About as fast as it comes, the smile drops from his face. Why would it matter? It shouldn't.

Casting one last forlorn glance at the fishtank, Astro whispers under his breath, "Goodbye, John. Goodbye, Turtle." He turns around, ignoring the aching in his head and heart telling him to stay, and paces as quietly as he can to the door, opening it, then closing.

The streetlights cast the town in somber shades of cold oranges and yellows, refracting off his visor as he walks. Astro supposes this is what he must look like - dressed in gold, shambling down the street as if he'd had too much to drink and was trying to find his keys. He pauses by Night Angel's home as a flicker of magenta-purple wings enters his mind.

_"How are you still alive?" She'd asked, obviously bewildered, eyeing him up and down._

_"Wh-what?" Astro had replied, unsure._

_Night Angel had sighed. "Look, I wouldn't wish living with Turtle upon my worst enemy," she'd explained. "You're doing it willingly?" To his confused nod, she'd muttered, "You poor thing!"_

He chuckles, dropping his head as he continues. He could afford to take the scenic route, he figured.

As Astro continues, he spots Frog's apartment. The light was still on, which was odd but not entirely unexpected, given the showman.

_"Kitty!" Frog had grinned, looking Astronaut over in a split second. "Turtle found a boyfriend!"_

_By the time Kitty had dashed from the next room over to separate everyone, Turtle had pinned Frog to the wall and had broken something by the crunch of bone as his fist met with the offender's face, while Astro had cowered in the corner, mortified, glad his visor blocked how crimson he'd become. It's not like he liked him that way..._ ~~_and even if he did, it definitely wasn't mutual._ ~~

He sighs, continuing on - as he loops around, he hears a kerfuffle up ahead. Speeding up slightly to get there, Astro hides his grin. Of course, Fox was berating Rabbit again.

_The first time Astronaut had ventured into the town alone, he met Rabbit. When he did, he had run half a block away before Rabbit could even open his mouth. In his defense, Rabbit looked like he ate toddlers for breakfast and washed it down with the tears of their mothers._

_The reason Astro had stopped running was because he ran straight into Fox. Even as he apologized profusely, Fox had merely laughed._

_"Turtle's told us a lot about you," he had explained, helping Astro back up with a smile as he introduced himself and his boyfriend._

~~But if Turtle was talking about him, it probably wasn't anything good.~~

Astro doesn't remember when the streetlights dim and finally give way to the darkness of the night. He walks on, though, ignoring how his feet have begun to drag slightly. That's when he hears it.

Metal slams against metal, the acrid noise of one giving way to the other scraping through the air. A pause - another slam.

Astro's running before he realizes it.

He skids to a stop in front of his rocket, eyes wide as he spots the punctures in the hull. No. No, no, no, no - he was supposed to _leave,_ not -

Astronaut slumps upon the hull of the rocket, eyes glued to the punctures. Tears brim, then cascade down his cheeks, catching on the rim of his helmet before dripping off it, too.

Why did everything have to be so _complicated?_

Astro doesn't hear the rustling from behind him, so every muscle in his body locks on instinct when he's pulled into a strong, secure hug. He sniffles, holding onto the person as tight as he can.

"...I didn't know you wanted to leave this bad..."

He freezes up again. _Turtle?_ Of all his friends - _Turtle?_ His voice trembled, too, dejected and lonely. Astro didn't have to be a rocket scientist to catch the heaviness in Turtle's demeanor, the way he began to loosen up as if knowing he couldn't hold on forever.

Astro swallows the lump in his throat - another takes its place immediately. "...I didn't want you to -" an inhale, "- miss me."

"Then stay," Turtle mumbles, half under his breath. "Unless you - want to go, then go... I can't stop you..."

Astro detaches, looking back to the hull of the rocket - the puncture wounds fit neatly with a certain someone's shell rammed into them over and over again to try to break the ship and cause a delay.

Despite how he should feel - annoyed, sad, enraged - he just feels numb, and that's scary to him. The part of him that begs to stay throbs harder, harder in his chest, until he feels like he's going to explode.

_Stay. Stay. Stay._

~~_Ground control forgot about you already anyway._ ~~

He glances back to Turtle, then pulls him into an even tighter hug.

"I'm not sure if I want to go," Astronaut confesses, quiet, resting his head on Turtle's spiky shoulder, again glad for his helmet.

"You don't have to," Turtle whispers back, and that's all the affirmation he needs. Astro's heart skips a beat, and he knows.

There's no point in leaving if his home is right here, in Turtle's arms, listening as their hearts synchronize, then beat as one.

Together.

For the first time in a long time, Astro doesn't feel lonely anymore.


End file.
